It is desirable in many instances to splice optical fibers. For example, a relatively short length of optical fiber upon which a ferrule has been previously mounted may be spliced to a longer length of optical fiber in the field in order to facilitate the connectorization of the resulting spliced optical fiber. Thus, the ferrule can be mounted upon a relatively short length of optical fiber or pigtail at the factory in order to simplify the connectorization of the resulting spliced optical fiber in the field.
In order to properly splice the optical fibers as well as to protect the resulting splice, a number of mechanical splice housings have been developed. One of the initial mechanical splice housings included an outer housing formed of fused quartz. Since the fused quartz had approximately the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the optical fiber, the entire splice housing would expand and contract in approximately equal amounts as the temperature increased and decreased, respectively. While the mechanical splice housings that include a fused quartz outer housing can generally protect the spliced optical fibers from damage as the temperature fluctuated, the fused quartz outer housing was prohibitively expensive, particularly in comparison to the material costs of other types of housing.
In order to reduce the material costs of the mechanical splice housing and to provide improved impact strength or impact resistance, mechanical splice housings formed of plastic and other materials, such as metal and ceramic, were designed. Unfortunately, plastic housings have large coefficients of thermal expansion relative to the optical fibers. As such, the plastic housings expand and contract to a much greater degree than the optical fibers upon which the plastic housings are mounted. While housings mode of other materials, such as metal or ceramic, may not have a coefficient of thermal expansion as large as plastic housings, housings made of these other materials still expanded and contracted to a greater degree than the optical fibers upon which the housings are mounted. As a result, the quality of the splice tends to degrade as the temperature fluctuates, thereby resulting in inconsistent optical performance of the resulting mechanical splice.
In order to fix the respective end portions of the optical fibers in place regardless of fluctuations in the temperature, mechanical splice housings that require activation have been developed. For example, Siecor Corporation has developed CamSplice.RTM. connectors and CamLite.RTM. connectors for establishing and protecting mechanical splices. These connectors require external activation, such as activation of a cam, to clamp the respective end portions of the optical fibers within the mechanical spliced housing. As such, temperature fluctuations will not affect the quality of the mechanical splice.
In addition, connectors, such as the FuseLite.RTM. connectors also developed by Siecor Corporation, have been developed which fuse the respective end portions of the spliced optical fibers such that the resulting splice is not adversely affected by temperature fluctuations. Unfortunately, mechanical splices that require external activation as well as fusion splice techniques require a technician to perform additional operations in order to successfully splice the optical fibers. As a result, these splicing techniques may introduce still additional sources of expense and error to the splicing process.
Notwithstanding the variety of splice housings and techniques currently available, it would still be desirable to provide a non-activated, mechanical splice which utilizes relatively inexpensive components, such as plastic components, but which protects the resulting mechanical splice as the temperature fluctuates.